This is a personal biography and not a political history. John Hay was an ideal letter writer, he recorded his impressions so freshly and so vividly that he never leaves us in doubt as to what he thought of persons, political affairs, or life's experiences. Contents: Bread Winners; Abraham Lincoln: A History; Washington Circle; Letters to Henry Adams; Major McKinley; Hay's Ambassadorship; Hay Secretary of State; Alaska: The First Canal Treaty; Boxer Ordeal; German Menace Looms; Republic of Panama; Theodore Roosevelt sketch by John Hay; Hay's Last Labors. Illustrated.